Being a Muslim, Ramadan has always been the special month of the year for us . I have lived my whole childhood in Saudi Arabia as my father was employed there. Every year Ramadan would come, and when we were little we would see our parents fasting, praying extra prayers and the special preparations for suhoor and iftar. We would try to copy our parents and I remember my mother telling us that children can fast two times a day. So you can start your fast after your breakfast till lunch and start your second fast after having lunch then we can open our fast at iftar time together… lol .. and we believed them (now the same thing I am doing with my children 😀 )
My oldest daughter (who is 10 now Ma sha ALLAH) has started fasting from this year’s Ramadan, so I thought it’s the best time to teach my children the true meaning of Ramadan, why do we fast in this Holy month and why it is so important to Muslims. That’s why this year I decided to do something extra special in Ramadan. We do the Ramadan decorations every year but this year I wanted to do something to make it more exciting for them.
When I googled and searched on pinterest, I liked the idea of advent calendar. So I decided to make a Ramadan advent calendar. But we were in a lockdown, so couldn’t go out to buy the crafts. Luckily I got everything from home. A black cardboard, a gift wrapping paper, a string, and a sliver glitter foam paper and I made the simplest Ramadan Advent Calender (when you have 3 kids pretty much you always have these crafty kind of things at home all year long 😉 )
Most fun part was to fill the advent calendar. Instead of putting small things in it, I filled it with Ramadan good deeds(like help mama in the kitchen or clean your room), daily Dikr (like say Alhamdulilah 70 times or recite Surah Nas), and some small information (like which is the longest and shortest surah of Quran.) and I told them to open one envelope daily 15 min before the iftar time because that’s the time we should make duas while waiting for the adhan. So I thought it would be the best time to talk about the religion and tell them short historic Islamic stories.
The whole point was to make them excited about Ramadan not only for decorations and food but to know the true meaning of Ramadan. And it kind of worked… every day when I was preparing for iftar, my daughters would take out one envelope by themselves and waited for mama and baba to gather around the table and do the deed of the day.
I really enjoyed making this Ramadan Advent Calender and I will definitely make one for the next year’s Ramadan too (In sha ALLAH) with whole new theme, new information and new set of good deeds. May ALLAH give us hundreds of more Ramadan to spend it with our children with true Holy spirit and accept our prayers and duas. Ameen.
